Discovery of the Miracle
'The Discovery of the Miracle' By the year 2035, the Earth had truly come to the brink of disaster; climate change had gone almost unchecked as governments dithered and corporations quietly slipped through loopholes and followed blinkered visions of short term gains. Weather events became increasingly catastrophic and hardly a month went past without another well known animal species falling into oblivion. As the spectre of famine rose its ugly head, war and pestilence soon showed their shadows upon the horizon. The great powers of the world were still vying for influence and power – eager to exploit any resources they could find. Unknown to all but a few, the great melting of the ice caps had revealed little to no usable oil or gas reserve and the last drops of oil in the wealthy hands of the New Soviet Republic and the Islamic League were all but spent. Earth was faced with an energy crisis unlike any other – one that could bring civilization to its knees were a solution not found. Initiatives failed, green energy was proving insufficient and a short lived experiment in fusion left much of Southern France a disaster zone. Nuclear power became the remaining option, but with so little time left safety was a distant concern and desperate governments turned blind eyes to corporate cost cutting. Cheap, dirty and ill maintained reactors sprung up across the world, many in the hands of countries ill equipped and ill trained to manage them. Disaster was not far behind. In the wake of the catastrophes desperate lands became anarchic, leading the world into the Petroleum wars as the last few oil fields became desperately sought after commodities. Hundreds of thousands died in proxy wars fought between the great powers and amidst it all a new plague – Verity 16 – began sweeping out of the poor suburbs of China and across the world. Humanity seemed on the brink. The meteorite struck Southern Australia without warning on Christmas Day of 2036. Though not large, it was sizeable enough to devastate a wide area, killing thousands. The tragedy was enough to bring the great powers together in a broad stroke of sympathy and sorrow – a moment of brotherhood. Aid poured into the region, scientists swiftly finding the meteorite strangely intact and to have been moving far more slowly than it should have been. What was discovered within it changed everything. The Mineral they discovered was named Sedis 9. A strange metal, it carried a vital property that made it seem like a gift from the heavens despite the carnage of its arrival upon Earth. The metal absorbed heat and sunlight like a ravenous child, only to convert it with astonishing efficiency to static electricity. The meteorite carried enough of the mineral to revolutionize solar power. Where once solar power might have struggled to power a city, Sedis 9 could power an entire state with a fraction of the space needed. It was not without its downsides; in the powdered form needed by industry, it was every bit as cancerous and toxic as asbestos and mercury. Scientists quickly realised the metals potency in inducing rampant mutation and cancers in those exposed to it too readily or too often. Such concerns were swiftly dismissed. But one meteorite was never going to be enough. In gratitude for the assistance, Australia shared the gift between the nations who had helped it in their moment of need. Spurred by this gift, the nations of the world distracted themselves with the search for more. Tracking the meteorites path they discovered it had come from the asteroid belt and indications of Sedis 9 deposits were scattered across the belt, Mars, and even Earth’s own moon. By 2042 India and Pakistan were the first countries to land successful mining colonies on the lunar surface. A few years later, the US, Britain, France, Russia and China were among the first to land on Mars, while tentative efforts to explore the asteroid belt were made by large corporations eager to exploit the mineral wealth at source. The world came back from the brink, but rather than learn from the mistakes of the greed of the past, rather than appreciate the gift for the miracle it was, the discovery of Sedis 9 led to a new age of exploitation, greed, and imperialistic ambition.